Self-promotion: Branson flashed his suggestive underwear to a crowd of onlookers including Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

The crude tongue-in-cheek phrase alluded to Mr Branson’s newly launched domestic service, Little Red, which will now offer Virgin flights between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and London, in direct competition with British Airways.

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Never one to shy away from the limelight, Mr Branson – who had a Scottish grandmother and is married to a Glaswegian – stood on an elevated platform on the windy runway and said it was ‘great to be in Edinburgh’ before he exposed his underwear to a crowd which included Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Speaking after the stunt, Mr Branson said he was ‘enjoying wearing a kilt’.

No shrinking violet: Branson was hoping to draw attention to Virgin's new domestic services between London Heathrow and Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester

‘Despite the weather it is nice to have a bit of fresh air and it is very comfortable,’ he added. ‘I’ve got to the age where it is wise to always wear something under my kilt- especially in weather like this.’

This is not the first time the Virgin mogul has resorted to such uncouth publicity stunts.

The new Little Red service lauched yesterday will be the first time Virgin Atlantic has operated connecting flights from Scottish destinations, and Mr Branson said he was ‘excited’ to have been given the airport slots that came available after domestic airline British Midlands was forced out of business.

‘We are delighted that we managed to pick up these slots as it means we can offer stiff competition to British Airways,’ said the Virgin executive.

Honorary Scotsman: Branson said that he was enjoying wearing his kilt saying it was 'nice to have a bit of fresh air'

‘There are a lot of people from around the world who love to fly to Edinburgh and Aberdeen and now we can finally now compete properly with BA and give people the opportunity to travel up here with Virgin.’

‘I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Scotland.’

The expanded Virgin Atlantic service will create 130 new jobs in Scotland, and is expected to generate £75 million in revenue for the Scottish economy.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Branson said that
while he was ‘thrilled’ that Virgin had finally been allowed to expand
services to Edinburgh and Aberdeen, he was unhappy that they had been
prevented from operating out of Glasgow.

‘I would love to be flying to Glasgow as
well, but for some bizarre reason the competition authorities, who
bequeathed us these slots, didn’t allow us to have the slots to compete
with British airways out of Glasgow’, added the millionaire businessman.

Brazen: Canny businessman Branson took the opportunity to have a dig at competitors British Airways, saying that the 'stiff competition' message was aimed at them

After reporting losses of up to £135 million over the past two years, Mr Branson and Virgin Atlantic’s new Chief Executive, Craig Kreeger, said that the new domestic service was just one part of the company’s plans to push its finances back into the black.

And despite his brazen publicity stunt, Mr Branson was insistent that he would remain on neutral ground over the question of Scottish Independence.

‘If Scotland becomes independent they will have an airline that will be delighted to connect them to their neighbouring country and if it stays part of Great Britain, we will be equally delighted to have

Scottish people use our services to take visits down to little old England,’ said Mr Branson.‘Either way, Virgin will stay independent of this particular debate.’